Lesson One: An Introduction to the Houses

It is good to see everyone again for the next stage of our astrological
adventure. This term things get really interesting because we are
going to add two major new levels to our astrology, both of which
explain how the birth chart actually manifests in real life.

Just to recap: last term we explored the meaning of the planets
- the characters in the play of our lives - and by putting them in
the astrological signs, we explored how each planet seeks to express
itself, its motivation, values, desires and goals. We looked at the
way the zodiac signs are constructed, by polarity (positive or negative),
modality (cardinal, fixed or mutable), and by element (earth, air,
fire or water). This term we are going to bring our astrology down
to earth - literally. We are going to see how the planets and signs
function in the world. It is not until the moment of our birth that
the astrological houses and angles are created, and it is at that
moment that the universal pattern becomes personalised, setting the
scene for the unfolding drama of our lives. In addition to the two
axes created by the angles, we will add a third major axis to our
charts, that of the Moon's Nodes. With the angles functioning as
our personal doorways into the world, we will see how the nodal axis
functions as a doorway into other dimensions that appear to hold
our pattern and remember our soul's purpose.

When we have identified the houses and the three axes in the chart,
we will go on to explore the aspects, the relationships between the
planets, and consider whether they support or do battle with each
other. The aspects describe the dynamic tension, struggle, talent
and potential in every chart. They tell stories that are both intensely
personal and yet reflect universal themes which, to a greater or
lesser extent, we all recognise. Finally, with all the components
in place - planets, signs, house, angles and aspects - we will spend
the last evening of this term on the general interpretation of a
birth chart, integrating everything we have learned so far.

Audience: There just seem to be so many layers to all this. I
think I am beginning to lose my confidence. I used to think I knew
a great deal of astrology, and now I increasingly feel as if I know
nothing.

Clare: Well, you can now join the club, because you are not alone.
When we first come across astrology, we tend to approach it just as
we would with any other kind of learning - we seek to master it. We
feel that once we have learned the grammar, we should be able to speak
the language fluently. But ultimately, astrology is a living and constantly
evolving tradition that cannot be mastered in this way; we can only
hope to participate in its wonders and mysteries. Astrology teaches
us to question, to open our minds to multiple and subtle layers of
meaning. It is one of the ancient mystery traditions which leads us
into a dialogue with living forces which are sometimes opaque or hidden
from us, sometimes capricious, often humorous, and occasionally overwhelmingly
astonishing and meaningful. Our best approach is one of enquiry and
humility - we can ask astrology questions and wait patiently for the
answers. If we attempt to impose our own preconceived notions upon
it, then we will not hear it speak to us. So don't despair - I think
this is an excellent sign.

Incarnation and the angles

We are going to add a new dimension to our astrology tonight.
Up until the moment of our birth, the planets and signs are disembodied
- they are of universal, collective significance only. They exist as
principles, unable to take any particular, specific shape or form.
However, at the exact time and place of our birth, the forever-changing
pattern of the heavens becomes fixed, in what is the most powerful,
seismic moment of our lives. At the moment of birth our undifferentiated
wholeness comes to an end, and we find ourselves quartered, nailed,
as it were, to the cross of matter, to the two major axes which are
the angles of the chart. From that moment on we are concretised, caught
in the drama of opposites, which is also the drama of life itself.

Every birth chart is a reflection of the symbol for the earth, the
cross within the circle, describing the precise nature of the specific
material, solid, concrete world into which we have been born and through
which each of us must manifest ourselves. It is the angles which make
time and space comprehensible, which give us our orientation, our east,
west, north and south. The horizon, or east-west axis at that moment,
forms the Ascendant-Descendant of the chart, and the meridian, or south-north
axis, forms the MC (Medium Coeli) and IC (Imum Coeli). Simultaneously,
the twelve astrological houses come into being, taking their starting
point from the Ascendant. The houses describe every area of life and
all the relationships that we will encounter - they describe 'where'
or 'in what area of life' we will meet, experience and express the
planetary principles. It is the angles and the houses that turn the
universal picture into a highly particular and specific map of the
individual psyche and into an entirely personal life story.
Whether or not we believe, as the ancients did, that our souls choose
the specific time and place of our birth, nevertheless from the moment
of birth our lives are circumscribed and defined within the limits
of our birth chart. We cannot trade in or exchange any of the positions
of the planets, or decide to have another birth sign or a different
house placement of Pluto, for example. We are literally stuck with
our birth charts, which means that nothing can come to pass which is
not already present as potential in our birth charts. In this sense,
our birth charts are indeed our fate. But they are also a tiny and
unique piece of the great project, the magnum opus of collective human
evolution. What is of interest from this point of view is not the birth
chart itself, but how each of us engages and actively participates
with the unique part of the whole which has been allotted to us, knowing
that the way we live our own lives will add to the sum total of all
human experience and existence.
The astrological birth chart remains exactly the same for our entire
lives. There is no guarantee that we will be any more integrated, evolved
or conscious at the end of our lives than we were at the beginning.
The question is whether our lives are going to make a difference, 'for
nature's continued existence depends ultimately on the kind of consciousness
we bring to bear on it'. [1]Ultimately,
it is up to each one of us to decide what to do with our birth chart
and how to live it.

Once a vision of life as an organic whole is accepted in principle,
humanity becomes in one sense a co-creator with nature, in so far as
it can foster, ignore or destroy its identity with nature. [2]

If we are working alchemically, then there is work to be done. Our
job is to work against the blindness of our natural state in the service
of increased consciousness:

Things are created and given into our hands, but not in the ultimate
form that is proper to them ... For alchemy means: to carry to its
end something that has not yet been completed; to obtain the lead from
the ore and to transform it into what it is made for. [3]

Let's see how a horoscope is created at a particular time
and in a particular place. I thought it would be interesting to use
today's astrology as an example of how this works. Have a look at the
positions of the planets in this chart. On this day, no matter where
in the world we happen to be, the Moon, Sun, Neptune, Uranus and Mercury
are all in Aquarius. Mars is in Scorpio, Pluto and Chiron are in Sagittarius,
Venus is in Pisces, Saturn is in Taurus, and Jupiter is in Gemini.

24 January 2001, 6.00 am GMT, London
Equal House system

From what we learned last term, we can already get a good
sense of the astrological themes described by the planets in these
signs, and the many millions of people born today will carry these
themes with them throughout their lives and live them out in a variety
of specific, individual ways. However, the houses, or areas of life
in which these themes will be expressed, depend upon the exact time
and place of each person's birth. I have fixed this horoscope in time
and space by setting it for 6.00 am this morning, in London.

The east-west horizon: Ascendant/Descendant axis

Imagine that you are standing right in the centre of this
horoscope. The Ascendant is on your left, which tells us that at 6.00
this morning, 0° 24' of the sign of Capricorn was rising over the eastern
horizon. The Descendant is on your right, and you can see that 0° 24'
of the sign of Cancer was setting over the western horizon. The Sun
ascends over the eastern horizon every day at dawn and descends over
the western horizon every day at sunset. You can see from this horoscope
that it is still dark because the Sun is under the horizon, which is
something we know anyway, because the Sun does not rise in London in
January until just before 8.00 am.
From our position at the centre of the chart, the entire zodiac and
all the planets and stars appear to rotate around us in a clockwise
direction every twenty-four hours at an average rate of approximately
1° every four minutes. The Ascendant is also the starting point of
the twelve houses, with the first house beginning at the Ascendant,
and all the houses follow anti-clockwise around the chart, until you
can see that the 12th house ends at the same point that the 1st house
begins: at the Ascendant. Houses 1 to 6 are below the horizon, hidden
from view under the earth, and houses 7 to 12 are visible above the
horizon.

The south-north meridian: MC/IC axis

The other major axis of orientation is the point where
the Sun's path crosses the north-south meridian, the points due north
and due south at the moment of birth, known as the MC/IC axis. Once
again, if you are standing in the centre of the chart, with the east
on your left and the west on your right, then you will be facing south,
and the Midheaven or MC (an abbreviation of Medium Coeli, the Latin
for 'middle of the heavens') will be directly ahead and above you.
The IC (an abbreviation of Imum Coeli, the Latin for 'lowest part
of the heavens') will be directly behind you and under the earth. At
6.00 am this morning in London, the MC was 5° 46' Scorpio, which means
that the IC was exactly opposite, at 5° 46' Taurus.

Audience: I am having difficulty with this, because in normal maps
the west is on the left and the east is on the right, with the north
above and the south below. How does a natal chart fit in with the normal
way we look at a map?

Clare: That is a good point. Imagine that you are looking at an atlas.
Where are you actually looking from?

Audience: Well, I suppose you are looking down at the earth from
some place in space?

Clare: Exactly. You are disembodied - looking down at the earth from
somewhere outside the earth, and indeed from somewhere outside your
body. Astrology is geocentric, so we are looking out at the heavens
from our place on the earth and in our bodies. Now, imagine that you
are standing in a wide-open place, somewhere like Salisbury Plain.
Facing due south, the MC will be directly ahead of you and the IC,
or north point, will be directly behind you, invisible, under the earth.
All the constellations and planets will appear to rise over the eastern
horizon to your left; they will gradually rise higher in the sky until
they cross the MC, and then their height will gradually diminish until
they set somewhere over the western horizon. Imagine that the entire
zodiac is moving around you in a clockwise direction. At 6.00 am this
morning, the five planets in Aquarius were all in the 2nd house, and
Chiron had just risen over the Ascendant and entered the 12th house.
You can also see very graphically that there is about to be a new Moon,
because the Moon is just over 3° behind the Sun and, since it moves
very rapidly through the signs, at approximately 1° every two hours,
we can immediately see that there was a new Moon today, at about 12.00
noon.

24 January 2001, 2.00 pm GMT, London
Equal House system

We are now going to look at the situation eight hours
later, at 2.00 pm this afternoon. All the planets in Aquarius have
moved from the 2nd house through the 1st, 12th, 11th, 10th and 9th
houses, and
across the MC. The Sun and Moon are now in the 7th house,
with Neptune, Uranus, and Mercury still in the 8th house. The new Moon
has already occurred, and the Moon is now ahead of the Sun and quickly
approaching Neptune. Incidentally, it is most auspicious to begin a
new term in a new year at the new Moon. So this is a perfect time for
our new beginning.

24 January 2001, 7.00 pm GMT, London
Equal House system

By 7.00 pm, which is the moment when our class and the
second term of this course began, the picture has changed again. You
can see that all the planets in Aquarius have crossed the Descendant
and entered the 6th house, which means that it is now dark, as you
can see by looking out of the window. Saturn is just about to cross
the MC, to be followed by Jupiter. The Moon has already crossed over
Neptune and is now more than a degree away, moving rapidly towards
Uranus and then Mercury. In actual fact, of course, the signs and planets
are not revolving in a clockwise direction around us every twenty-four
hours - they just appear to do so from our position in the centre of
the chart. Rather, it is the earth itself that is turning on its axis
every twenty-four hours. So another way of seeing the same thing is
to focus on the fact that the east-west and north-south points are
moving anti-clockwise at a rate of approximately 1° every four minutes
against the backdrop of the planets and signs. This means that the
Ascendant gradually moves anti-clockwise from Sagittarius to Capricorn
to Aquarius to Pisces, and so on right around the zodiac, until it
returns to the same point in Capricorn once again, roughly twenty-four
hours later.

Understanding how all this works in practice is very helpful, because
then we can visualise for ourselves exactly what a birth chart is from
an astronomical point of view. It is worth visiting the Greenwich Observatory
or the London Planetarium, just to experience for yourself how this
mechanism actually works. It can be confusing until you understand
that the east-west and north-south axes are moving in an anti-clockwise
direction around the chart, whereas all the planets and signs appear
to be moving in a clockwise direction from your place of observation.

Audience: Looking at a chart in this way helps to see the whole thing
visually. Does this mean that people born at night, with the Sun under
the horizon, are more comfortable in the dark?

Clare: Well, it is certainly true that people with the majority of
their planets under the horizon tend to be more private and to draw
their strength and their meaning from within themselves. This is a
good example of the way that our astrological interpretations are put
into context if we understand the astronomical structure of a birth
chart.Audience: Can you say something about the different house systems?
I find this particularly confusing and don't really know where to start.

About house systems

Clare: This is turning into a rather technical lesson but, as you
can see from our own chart this evening, that is not really surprising.
Saturn is the most elevated planet in the chart at the moment, and
it is strongly emphasised because it is on the MC. And since Saturn
is in the fixed earth sign of Taurus, we are working to bring the chart
down to earth, to understand the structure. Jupiter in Gemini indicates
that we all want to learn, and with all the Aquarian planets in the
6th house of work, this also tells us that we are interested in bringing
the heavens down to earth and making them work for us.

There are many different house systems in astrology, and no doubt you
have already come across this and wondered which is the 'correct' house
system to use. However, house systems, like everything else in astrology,
are subject to fashion and to personal preference. The only contribution
I can make here is to suggest that a horoscope is like a hologram -
no matter how it is divided, the overall pattern and structure remain
identical, since the meaning of the whole is reflected in each of its
parts. Perhaps the major house systems used today are the Placidus,
Koch and Equal House systems. Placidus and Koch are quadrant systems,
which means that the meridian, or MC-IC axis, is always found on the
10th and 4th house cusps, with three complete houses in each quadrant
of the chart.

For the purposes of this course, I am using the Equal House system,
in which the zodiac is divided into twelve equal sections of 30°, beginning
at the Ascendant. This means, as you can see from the three charts
we have already looked at tonight, that the meridian is not anchored
to the cusps of the 10th and 4th houses, but 'floats', being found
anywhere from the 11th-5th houses to the 10th-4th houses, the 9th-3rd
houses, and the 8th-2nd houses. The reason for this is that the angle
between the horizon (Ascendant-Descendant axis) and the meridian (MC-IC
axis) is constantly changing, depending on the time of day, the time
of year, and the latitude for which the horoscope is set.

Have another look at the series of charts above. At 6.00 am this morning,
the meridian was in the 11th and 5th houses, because the angle between
the meridian and the east point of the horizon was less than 60°. By
2.00 pm this afternoon, the meridian was in the 8th and 2nd houses,
because the angle between the meridian and the east point of the horizon
was just over 120°. By the beginning of our class at 7.00 pm, the angle
had altered again to just over 90°, and it will continue to decrease
until 6.00 am tomorrow morning, when it will be around 60° once again.
We will look at the interpretation of the MC-IC axis over the next
few weeks, but for the time being it is just worth noting that, no
matter which house system we use, the meaning of this axis is not identical
to the meaning of the 10th-4th house cusps. This is clear when we use
the Equal House system, but not necessarily so clear when we use a
quadrant system of house division.
Let's have a look at some of the similarities and differences between
the Placidus and Equal House systems of house division. Here is the
chart for 6.00 am this morning in both house systems. You will see
that the positions of planets, the angles of the chart, and the relationship
between the planets remains identical. However, some of the planets
have changed houses. You can see, for example, that in the Equal House
system, the five Aquarian planets are in the 2nd house, with Venus
in the 3rd, Saturn in the 4th, Jupiter in the 6th and Mars in the 11th.
In the Placidus house system, however, the Moon, Sun and Neptune are
in the 1st house, with Uranus, Mercury and Venus in the 2nd, Saturn
in the 4th, Jupiter in the 5th, and Mars in the 10th.

Audience: Now I am really confused. Surely these two charts are now
completely different and their interpretation will be totally different?

Clare: I am afraid that the answer to this is both yes and no, because
as astrologers we are going to find ourselves inevitably confronted
with the whole issue of the nature of objective truth, and of the meaning
we impose upon the objective world. Astrology does not respond well
to any ideas we might have about there being only one truth. At the
end of the day, the art of interpretation will always depend upon each
astrologer's individual perceptions and preconceptions, and on the
particular nature of each astrologer's relationship to factual, symbolic
and mythic thinking. Perhaps the best thing you can do is to experiment
with several house systems, and no doubt you will gradually find the
one you prefer - the one that works for you. It is not uncommon for
astrologers to use different house systems for different astrological
techniques. So try and hang on in there and see what emerges for you
over time.

Let's look at some of the other differences between these
two house systems. With the Placidus chart, the houses can be very
different sizes, and this difference in size tends gets more and more
extreme as the latitude of the place of birth increases. In fact, the
Placidus system breaks down altogether at high latitudes, which was
never a problem traditionally, since astrological lore was developed
around the temperate zones of the Mediterranean. Large houses can contain
whole signs, which are referred to as intercepted signs. These signs
are considered to be 'buried' in the particular houses they fall into,
and the planetary ruler/s of that sign are generally considered to
have more difficulty functioning 'in the world' because they are not
anchored to a house cusp and do not rule any of the houses. You will
see from the Placidus chart that the signs of Pisces and Virgo are
intercepted, being 'buried' in the 2nd and 8th houses respectively.
When signs are fully contained within a house, the planetary rulers
of those signs may not be anchored in time or space - may not have
a home, which means that they may not be able to function particularly
strongly in the world.

Audience: Can you confirm what you mean by planets ruling houses?Clare: Each house has a 'cusp' which marks the place where the house
begins. In this chart, the 1st house cusp is 0° 24' Capricorn, so
Saturn, which rules Capricorn, will rule the 1st house. The 2nd house
cusp is 17° 15' Aquarius, so Saturn is the personal ruler of the
2nd house and Uranus is the collective, transpersonal ruler. This
is important because we will all have 'empty' or 'untenanted' houses
with no planets in them, but this does not mean that nothing is happening
there. It simply means that we will look to the ruler of the house
for information about the way that house is functioning.

Audience: Can you say how this might actually work out in this chart?

Clare: Let's go back to the first chart I showed you tonight, and
imagine that we are studying the chart of somebody born in London at
6.00 am this morning. The signs of Pisces and Virgo are intercepted,
and the rulers of these two signs are Jupiter (traditional ruler of
Pisces), Neptune (transpersonal ruler of Pisces), and Mercury (ruler
of Virgo). As the co-ruler of Aquarius, Saturn rules the 2nd house,
so it is grounded in the chart. Taking the intercepted signs of Pisces
and Virgo, the rulers are Jupiter, Neptune and Mercury. Jupiter and
Mercury are grounded in the chart because they also rule Sagittarius
and Gemini, the signs on the 12th and 6th house cusps. But Neptune
has no home. And it may be difficult for Venus to find tangible expression,
since it is in the intercepted sign of Pisces. So it looks as if this
person may be rather disembodied and diffuse and imaginative. This
is supported by the fact that there is very little earth in the chart
apart from the Capricorn Ascendant - only Saturn in Taurus.

On the other hand, whenever there are intercepted signs in the large
houses in the Placidus system, it will also be the case that the same
pair of planets will rule two of the smaller houses, and those planets
function strongly in the world because they are anchored to more than
one house cusp. For example, you will see that Mars and Pluto rule
both the 10th and 11th houses, because the cusp of both houses is Scorpio,
and Venus rules both the 4th and 5th houses, because the cusp of both
houses is Taurus. This information tells us about the relative strength
of the planets and where to put the emphasis in our interpretation.
Mars, Pluto, and Venus will be strongly emphasised in the chart. But
as we have already seen, Venus is in the intercepted sign of Pisces,
so we can assume that the person born at 6.00 this morning will be
particularly imaginative and sensitive but may have difficulty finding
an outlet for this.

Finally, because the Placidus system is a quadrant house system,
three complete houses are found in each of the four quadrants. Starting
from the angles, these are known as angular, succedent and cadent houses,
and the meaning of these terms is not dissimilar to the meaning of
the cardinal, fixed and mutable modes. In an Equal House chart, on
the other hand, each planet has equal weight 'in the world' because
each sign (and therefore the planetary ruler of each sign) is 'anchored'
to a house cusp.

"Mapping
the Psyche, Volume 2"

Mapping the Psyche, Volume II, a transcript of the second term of Clare
Martin's introductory course in astrology given for the Centre for Psychological Astrology,
explores the planetary aspects and the houses of the horoscope.
Clare looks at polarities, the Moon's nodes and both major and
minor aspects. She also discusses missing elements and aspects.
Mapping the Psyche Vol. II is the sequel to Clare's highly acclaimed
volume 1, which features the planets and zodical signs.